An Introduction To Cryptography Algorithms

While many people don’t take the security of their systems seriously, it’s the number one priority for all organizations. This is because security breaches cost these organizations millions each year.

Even if you don’t have that much to lose, you should protect what you have. There are different types of security technologies, but cryptography is the basic technology each cryptography user should know about.

Cryptography is related to cryptology and cryptanalysis. It involves the use various technological ways to hide stored information or the one in transit. However, cryptography is used in today’s computer world to scramble plain text, also known as cleartext into ciphertext using a process known as encryption.

The entire procedure can be reversed by cryptography in a process known as decryption. People working in this field are known as cryptographers.

Encryption scrambles data and turns it into an unreadable format that cannot be read by parties it is not intended for – interesting, isn’t it? Encryption comes in different forms but what differentiates these forms are the size and the strength of the key.

These are some algorithms which are used in encryption:

Triple DES

This is the improved version of Data Encryption Standard (DES) algorithm, which hackers had known how to penetrate without struggling. It was once the widely used and recommended symmetric algorithm in the industry.

Triple DES uses three (triple) individual keys, with each key having 56 bits. The combination of the key length adds up to 168 bits.

Many businesses are still using the Triple DES to encrypt their data despite the fact that it’s being phased out slowly.

RSA

This is an example of a public key. RSA encryption algorithm is used to encrypt data being transferred through the internet. PGP and GPG programs also use this algorithm in their encryption processes.

RSA uses only two keys compared to the three used by Triple DES, thus considered to be an asymmetric algorithm. Keys used in this algorithm include the public key which is used to encrypt the message and private key, used to decrypt it.

Hackers find it hard to hack data encrypted by RSA since it can only be decrypted by the person with the other key.

Blowfish

Blowfish is also designed to replace DES. The algorithm divides messages into blocks of 64 bits and then encrypts each block.

Blowfish is known for its effectiveness and speed it uses in data encryption. Many people claim that no hacker has ever succeeded in defeating the algorithm. Many businesses have utilized the advantage of Blowfish being free in the public domain to use it to encrypt their data.

It can be found in a wide software variety ranging from platforms for securing e-payments to password management tools, for securing passwords. This is one of the most flexible encryption algorithms available.

Twofish

This algorithm has keys with up to 256 bits in length, and as with all symmetric techniques, only one key is required. Twofish has flexible capabilities and can be used in both software and hardware encryption. It is also considered to be fast in the encryption process.

Twofish is also free for anyone who wants to use it. As a result of this, you can find it in numerous encryption programs like GPG, PhotoEncrypt and TrueCrypt which is a common open source software.

AES

Also known as Advanced Encryption Standard is the algorithm used by many governments other well-known organizations. The US Government is an example of one of the governments which use the AES encryption algorithm. AES can be found in 128, 192 and 256 bits.

No hackers have ever succeeded in hacking AES. The algorithm has exceptional brute force, which uses all possible combinations to decipher messages. The private sector used the AES to encrypt their data although its adoption is still growing.